Ina on How GEN works
Elliott and Deniz filled us in on information they had gotten from Ina about how GEN works. There is a General Assembly once a year to which all of the ecovillages who are members of gen are invited. There are two kinds of membership. Full which can only be gotten as an ecovillage. And Supporting membership which costs different amounts for different countries. These do not get a vote in the GA where as full members do. We learned that GEN did not get the 80,000 euros which it usually gets from the EU so it is currently broke. We talked about setting up a database with information on different programs offered by ecovillages and youth friendly organizations world wide possible catagories accredited volunteer internship workshop residential Paid Labor Place to sleep The last on the list lead to a discussion about creating a screening process for getting membership within next GEN. This is a tough issue fore on the one hand we want to make this as accessible as possible while on the other we do not want random people getting into the network. We talked about getting referrals from someone already in the network. Having some kind of membership fee. (obviously on a sliding scale - see ecorates on GEN website) Maybe have some kind of written essay about who you are and your interest joining? Although I wonder who would read them, Also obviously there would be the profile to fill out. So the web page we create with probably be divided into member and nonmember services. Linden and Collin are currently looking into wickies to see how that might tie into this. The services which we are thinking it provide are Profiles Posting of opportunities and availability Forums for the working groups News about what we and other young people are going world wide In the mean time Collin suggested that we set up a list serve which you can add yourself to or remove yourself from as these emails get to be too much. He is working on that. As far as the working groups go I would recommend that if you are interested in any specific group email the person who is holding that group and get organized with them. Rabea has started a working group to research opportunities for young people to work, study, volunteer etc... I will send out and email with the names of all the working groups and who is focalizing them. We talked about what role those who are staying here at findhorn would have as the current base of operations. We agreed that they should be in contact with the heads of the working groups to make sure they have a good idea of what is going on and can keep everyone who needs to be in communication in communication. Also collecting any money that we accumulate. The last question what was reasised was what can travelers do? Spread the word about this network and get people liked up Visit ecovillages and rate their friendliness to youth and projects they have etc. (Work on the directory) Get support from ecovillages seeking youth Home home